The Principles of the League of Women Voters are “concepts of government” to which the League at all levels subscribes. They result from principles supported and positions taken by the League as a whole in fields of government to which the LWV has given sustained attention. They serve as authorization for adoption of national, state and local program and a basis for taking action at the national, state and local levels.

The League of Women Voters believes in representative government and in the individual liberties as established in the Constitution of the United States. The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that all powers of the U.S. government should be exercised within the constitutional framework of a balance among the three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial.

2015 marks the 95th Anniversary of ratification of the 19th Amendment granting American women the right to vote. Throughout the year, the League of W omen Voters is celebrating various highlights of this anniversary.

The campaign for giving women in America the right to vote began at First Women’s Rights Convention which convened on August 19, 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. The women who organized this significant event started the effort that would take 72 years before final ratification.

The LWV of Indiana sponsored a “Go See Seneca Falls” trip July 9 through 12 to visit key locations in this long effort. Sue Fain and Gail Pebworth represented Montgomery County LWV on this trip. The two early major leaders of women’s rights were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two with very different backgrounds had complementary skills and together built a strong national suffrage movement.

The League of Women Voters invites all residents to drop by the LWV Booth at the Montgomery County Fair July 18 through 23.

Information will be available about voting, voter registration and contacting governmental officials. Free Copies of FOCUS on Montgomery County and the 2015 Government Directory will be available.

The League believes government can work IF citizens are informed and involved.

BE INFORMED by getting the facts, listen to different opinions, engage in civil discourse, communicate with elected officials and be aware of political party protectionism.

BE INVOLVED by voting! Are you eligible to vote? Applications to register to vote will be available at the LWV booth. You can register to vote in Indiana if you are a United States citizen, will be 18 years old by the time of the general election and a resident of your precinct in Indiana for at least 30 days prior to the election.

Those who attended the first film of this summer's Green Issues movies series “Chasing Ice” enjoyed stunningly beautiful photos of ice from some of the world's most remote and forbidding locations.

The film documents the efforts of the Extreme Ice Survey, led by James Balog, which photographed glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, and Alaska on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate. Chasing Ice received the 2014 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Nature Programming and has been screened in more than 172 countries and on all seven continents.

Independence Day 2015 marks 49 years since the landmark Freedom of Information Act went into effect – yet Americans are still distrustful of government.

The Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966. This legislation gives citizens the right to request and obtain documents from any agency of the Executive Branch of the United States Government except those that are exempted by statute such as classified documents.

Tuesday marked the 43rd Anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the law that opened up many opportunities for women in the classroom, sports and more. The National Women’s History Projects notes “Title IX of the Education Amendments for the 1972, signed by President Nixon, is one of the most important legislative initiatives passed for women and girls since women won the vote in 1920.”

A Green Issues Summer Movie Series will again be co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County and the Wabash College Lilly Library. Free to the public, the movies will start at 7 p.m. in the Korb Classroom at the Fine Arts Center at Wabash College on South Grant Street.

Redistricting of local, state and federal districts is mandated following the United States Census every ten years to reflect population shifts. Drawing of new district maps is one of the most fundamental processes in our American democracy.

How the lines are drawn determines whether voters in different communities get meaningful say in picking their elected officials and whether representatives feel accountable to the people who elect them. Such an important process should be open and transparent with a premium placed on the public interest. But in our partisan atmosphere, the party in power and sitting officials have every incentive to draw lines to assure continued reelection and predominance.

League of Women Voters members discussed and adopted local program for 2015-2016 at the May 21 Annual Meeting. Five local areas were approved for study and action: Economic Health of Montgomery County, Health Care in Montgomery County, Land Use in Montgomery County, Local Government and Vote Centers.

The Economic Health Committee’s scope of work includes:

Support for:

*City and county-wide economic development as stated in the LWVMC position;

“Where is Jefferson’s Informed Electorate When You Need Them?” was the topic of Dale Petrie’s presentation at the Annual Meeting of the League of Women Voters last week. Petrie began with a quote from Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis in 1820.

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."